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The Loners
Characters Petalpaw: Silver tabby she-cat with lavender eyes and one white paw Tabby: Small dark brown tabby she-cat with green eyes Ebony: Dark black she-cat with green eyes Snap: White tom with blue eyes Patches: Black and white tom with gray eyes, son of Ebony and Snap Tabby collapsed in a heap once they reached the cover of a holly bush. Petalpaw sighed and rubbed some dock juice - she had stuffed ehr collar with herbs before they left - over Tabby's pads. The former kittypet's pads weren't as tough as Petalpaws; her's were only a bit sore. "Greetings." Petalpaw leaped to her paws and whipped around. Tabby growled low in her throat but didn't stand. There was a black she-cat standing in front of her, a black and white tom standing just behind her. Petalpaw bared her teeth threatiningly, but the she-cat only surpressed a ''mrrow ''of laughter. "My name is Ebony, and this is my son Patches. You have tread upon our home." Embarrassed, Petalpaw sat again, wrapping her tail over her paws. "I'm sorry, Ebony," She mewed. "You frightened me is all. And we'll leave right away; We're sorry to have bothered you." "Nonsense." It was Patches who spoke. "Let them stay, Mother. They won't be here forever, and they won't be a burden to us." Ebony nodded. "I wasn't going to drive them away, Patches. We'll let them settle in and hunt, and we'll come back at nightfall." Without another word, the black cat and her son bounded away into the forest. Her and Tabby broke away to hunt, each coming back loaded with prey. "Prey is rich here," Petalpaw commented as she sat to tuck into a water vole. Tabby crouched beside her, chomping on a plump squirrel. When Petalpaw had finished, she rolled onto her back to take a nap before Ebony arrived. * * * When Petalpaw awoke, she prodded Tabby awake so they could finish off the fresh-kill and groom themselves before their company showed up. She gulped down a sparrow and rapidly licked the leaflitter and bracken from her pelt. It was dark when Ebony arrived, her son and a white tom behind her. "Hello," The black cat mewed. "This is my mate, Snap." She sat across from Petalpaw and Tabby, and her mate and son did the same. "Now, how long would you like to stay?" Petalpaw sighed. "Thank you for having us, but we won't stay much longer. We'll rest today, but we'll be gone by sunhigh tommorrow." Tabby look startled. "Why? There's shelter here, all the prey we could want, and my paws are still sore." As if trying to prove her point, she licked a cracked pad. Ebony smiled. "We have a good herb for cracked pads. I call it tube grass." She turned to Snap. "Will you collect some tubegrass for the tabby?" her mate nodded and bounded away. Ebony turned back to the loners. "Honeslty, we-" Her mew was cut short by a terfied caterwhaul. Then Snap raced abck to the clearing, his right foreleg gashed adn bleeding. "Twolegs!" He cried. "By the tubegrass patch! They threw some sharp silver stone and it cut my leg. They're coming this way!" He tried to run, but collapsed as his leg gave way. Ebony shrieked and crouched in front of Patches as three Twolegs came into view. Petalpaw was frozen with terror, but felt a sharp nudge on her shoulder. "Go!" Tabby hissed in her ear. "There's a thick bush over there where we can hide!" Petalapw scrambled after her friend under the bush. She peered out of the tangled branches; Ebony hissed and swiped at a Twoleg as it reached for Snap. But it left Patches partly unprotected; The other Twoleg reached down and slit the black and white tom's throat with a long silver stone. "No!" Petalapw cried. She tried to leap after the tom, but Tabby's teeth grabbed her tail. "There's nothing we can do!" The brown tabby wailed, dragging her back. Petalpaw turned away from the branches, but she couldn't drown out the sound of Ebony's grieving wails as the Twolegs raced away. * * * Petalpaw woke to a sharp apw prodding her side. ''It was all just a dream! ''She wailed to herself. Then the reek of blood reached her nose. She dragged herself out of the bush and stretched her sore legs. Ebony was asleep, stretched out to touch her nose to Patches's ear, her tail-tip rested on Snap's blood-soaked shoulder. "Oh, no," Petalpaw whispered. "Tabby, when was Snap killed?" her friend sighed. "A while after you drifted off," Came the reply. Ebony stirred and bolted upright. "Leave!" She wailed. "Leave now!" Startled, Petalpaw and Tabby raced out of the forest, away from the grieving black she-cat.